Meg Bowles of The Moth knows the secrets to telling a good story. The Moth is an international organization that helps everyday people master storytelling through public speaking by focusing on authenticity, vulnerability, and confidence. They host public speaking events and workshops all over the world, and community events like The Moth Education Program. To purchase How to Tell a Story, follow the link below.
From Amazon.com:
THE MOTH is an acclaimed nonprofit organization dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling. Since launching in 1997, The Moth has presented over 40,000 stories, told live and without notes to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. The Moth’s fourth book will be released in the Spring of 2022.
J.K. Rowling was nearly homeless when she wrote the first Harry Potter book. Stephen King penned CARRIE on a small desk wedged between a washer and dryer. James Patterson worked in advertising and famously wrote the Toys “R” Us theme song long before becoming an author.
Whether you’re traditionally published or indie, writing a good book is only the first step in becoming a successful author. The days of just turning a manuscript into your editor and walking away are gone. If you want to succeed in today’s publishing world, you need to understand every aspect of the business – editing, formatting, marketing, contracts. It all starts with a good book, then the real work begins.
Join international bestselling author J.D. Barker and indie powerhouses, J. Thorn and Zach Bohannon, as they gain unique insight and valuable advice from the most prolific and accomplished authors in the business.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- What makes a Moth story
- Why people fear public speaking
- How memorization ruins a story
- The power of a supportive audience
Links:
J. D. Barker – http://jdbarker.com/
J. Thorn – https://theauthorlife.com/
Zach Bohannon – https://zachbohannon.com/
The Author Life Summit 2022 – https://theauthorlife.com/summit2022/
The Moth – https://themoth.org/
How to Tell a Story – https://mybook.to/HowToStory
Best of BookTook – https://bestofbooktok.com/
The Carbon Almanac – https://books2read.com/carbonalmanac
Story Rubric – http://storyrubric.com
Nonfic Rubric – http://nonficrubric.com
Scene Rubric – http://scenerubric.com
Proudly sponsored by Kobo Writing Life – https://kobowritinglife.com/
Music by Nicorus – https://cctrax.com/nicorus/dust-to-dust-ep
Voice Over by Rick Ganley – http://www.nhpr.com and recorded at Mill Pond Studio – http://www.millpondstudio.com
Contact – https://writersinkpodcast.com/dev/contact/
*Full disclosure: Some of the links are affiliate links.
Christopher Wills
3 years ago
Fascinating show today. Interesting hearing about people’s reluctance to public speak. I’m always grateful for my teaching training and experience. Often in my life I have happily volunteered to speak where others fear catastrophe; it’s a great secret superpower to have – must get myself a cape.
I have my own process so I’m looking forward to the book coming out as what Meg said made a lot of sense.
Mentioning PowerPoint reminded me I have done something similar, but different, called Pecha Kucha. It started in Japanese universities when interviewers got bored of long drawn out presentations by hopeful students trying to get on Architectural degree courses.
PK is simple – a PowerPoint of 20 slides that auto change every 2o seconds, so the presentation lasts only 6:40 minutes. The presenter designs their own slides and fires up the PP, stands in front and talks over the slides. It is amazing fun. What’s really funny is watching verbose people trying to keep up with their own slides. I’ve done it for holiday snaps which is a common public fun topic. It’s not just for fun though. In UK around 15 years ago it was becoming a popular format for presentations in Industry with some companies insisting on the format for sales presentations etc. I believe they used to do it in America; it may still be a thing and if you can get to a public show it could be a lot of fun and eye-opening; I recommend going at least once to see what it’s all about.
Loved the interview today and looking forward to the book coming out.
J. Thorn
3 years ago
What a great idea! I’ll bet it takes some practice to nail the timing of the slides.